Watchtower and the Humility Teaching

Growing up as a JW, I learned to value the quality of humility. My father was a very humble person and I appreciated his demeanor and the way he went about life. However, I also noticed some downsides to striving to be humble throughout every aspect of life. Today still, I appreciate a humble person and try to be humble myself, but there is a line that I personally draw regarding humility because it is not always advantageous, especially if you follow Watchtower's specific definition of the term.

The Insight Book, Volume 1 defines humility as the following:

Freedom from pride or arrogance; lowliness of mind. It is not weakness but a state of mind that is pleasing to Jehovah.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, “humility” is drawn from a root word (ʽa·nahʹ) meaning “be afflicted; be humbled; be oppressed.” Words drawn from this root are variously translated “humility,” “meekness,” “affliction,” and so forth. Two other Hebrew verbs involving “humility” are ka·naʽʹ (literally, subdue [oneself]) and sha·phelʹ (literally, be or become low). In the Christian Greek Scriptures the word ta·pei·no·phro·syʹne is translated “humility” and “lowliness of mind.” It is drawn from the words ta·pei·noʹo, “make low,” and phren, “the mind.”

We can see that Watchtower defines humility as a sort of "lowliness of mind." When it comes to Jehovah's Witnesses, how exactly does this translate? Some may argue that Watchtower teaches Witnesses to see humility as an acknowledgement of their stand before God. They are lower than he is. However, when you grow up a JW it also translates into something far more, a complete lowering of one's self-worth before everyone.

I'm going to get a little philosophical here but in "the world" we hear about equality and equal rights all the time. Viewing others as equals does not cause you to put yourself on a pedestal or cause you to look down on other people, nor does it make everyone else better than you. It provides an equal playing field for life. Viewing everyone as superior to you, as many Witnesses are taught to think, automatically puts you at a disadvantage. Suddenly you are helpless because you aren't good enough. You can't compete. You aren't worthy. You may not be as attractive, as successful, as smart, or as funny. This may not carry over to every Jehovah's Witness because obviously there are some very self-confident JWs out there who run large businesses and are very successful people. However, when it comes to a cultural norm, a lot of JW's have a victim and helpless sort of mentality. We see it a lot on this sub and elsewhere.

It takes a lot of self-discovery and experience outside of the organization to realize that in the real world, having self-worth is a positive asset that leads you to success. Pride in itself is not a bad thing. It fuels self-worth. It's nice at times to be proud of your accomplishments and there is nothing wrong with that. If you are overly proud to the point of being boastful and haughty, for the most part the world itself is not that accepting of that sort of person.

Notice that in Watchtower's definition of humility, they mentioned this:

ka·naʽʹ (literally, subdue [oneself])

The main thrust behind emphasizing humility for Watchtower is submitting to the organization and the Governing Body. If you completely submit and don't go against Watchtower teaching and policy, it is easier for Watchtower to function and to control its followers. It's really that simple. The negative side effect to this is that Jehovah's Witnesses then have a skewed view of pride and self-worth, and this can have a huge impact on their day-to-day lives. If they eventually leave, finding out that they are actually worth something, that they are not helpless, and that everyone is not better but equal is a huge discovery on its own.

If you are just now waking up or leaving the organization, do some soul searching. Get to know others who are not Jehovah's Witnesses. You will find that many have a good balance between being humble and having pride in themselves. Start trying to view others as equals rather than better than you. Be humble, but have some pride in yourself and your accomplishments. Humility is still a good quality to have, but Watchtower's version of humility will only set you back.